Tonight

Cass County residents will have an opportunity to take part in one of the state’s first plogging/plalking activities Saturday morning. Keep Cass County Beautiful will sponsor the event from 9-10 a.m. at Rhylander Park in Plattsmouth.

Plogging event to take place in Plattsmouth

Cass County residents will have an opportunity to take part in one of the state’s first plogging/plalking activities Saturday morning. Keep Cass County Beautiful will sponsor the event from 9-10 a.m. at Rhylander Park in Plattsmouth.

PLATTSMOUTH – Cass County residents will have a chance to combine physical exercise with environmental protection during a new event Saturday morning.

Keep Cass County Beautiful members will host a plogging/plalking event from 9-10 a.m. June 16 at Rhylander Park in Plattsmouth. KCCB members will provide local residents with gloves, water and snacks for the event.

Keep Cass County Beautiful Executive Director Linda Behrns said plogging and plalking are emerging fitness trends in Europe. Plogging is a combination of “picking up” and “jogging” and plalking is a combination of “picking up” and “walking.” The activities integrate the collection of litter within a regular jogging or walking workout.

“It’s a great way to make our parks, streets and trails more beautiful and burn more calories than just jogging or walking,” Behrns said.

The workouts allow people to walk or jog and then stop to bend over to pick up trash or litter. The activity is designed to create both exercise and public service benefits. Behrns said the popularity of plogging has coincided with growing environmental concerns about public waste in many industrialized nations.

Behrns said volunteers who come to Saturday’s workout in Plattsmouth can bring their own plastic grocery bags to collect litter. The Plattsmouth event will be one of the first plogging/plalking opportunities in Nebraska. State affiliates of the national Keep America Beautiful organization are holding their first plogging/plalking activities during the month of June.